Grow Tip: Soil Prep for Fall Production

August is the month to clean beds and prepare for fall planting.  With the extreme temperatures and lack of rain in Texas and the deep South, most gardens have completed their productivity, with the exception of peppers, okra, eggplant and late plantings of squash (thus the creation of ratatouille).  Now is the time to prepare for the upcoming season.
We will be discussing:

• Compost
• Weed Suppression
• Fertilization
• Cover Crops
• Soil Tests

Adding organic matter is crucial in the deep South, and because we have such long periods of hot weather, the organic matter burns up quickly every season.  For that reason, no matter how you are gardening, either containers, raised beds or in the field, a fresh top dressing of compost is essential.  Two to four inches is ideal.  Homemade compost is the best, but most gardeners can’t produce enough compost.  Whatever is available locally will be better than nothing.  As a general rule, 1cuyd per 100sqft is ideal for top dressing or building new beds.  In our local area, mushroom compost is available as well as city yard waste, which is more like fine shredded mulch.  It’s best to let a pile of city yard waste age for a year before use.  Unfinished compost can lock up nitrogen in the soil, so aging it will help as well as fertilizing when being applied.

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